Enable Google Analytics temporarily

[saivann]

I suggest we temporarily enable Google Analytics so we can have an accurate estimation of the traffic and be able to choose a dedicated server accordingly.

I planned to keep Analytics enabled for a week, and remove it afterwhile once we have enough data, with respect to previous discussions on this matter.

A fairly good dedicated server didn't survive to bitcoin.org traffic today so it seems like most estimations underestimate the real load.

[gmaxwell]

ACK. I'm not sure if it'll help (do we have any idea of what load the server can handle?) but I don't see any grave harm in running it, perhaps we'll learn something useful.

[saivann]

Well it seems like the SSL handshake and permanent redirect are consuming more CPU resources than just http requests, and is enough to take the server to its knees after a few minutes. In any case, having a better idea of the real traffic would just let us define what should be the next logical step (should we just optimize / test the current server, or go with something more robust). Without enough information we're mostly blind.

[luke-jr]

Are there any similar services that we can run ourselves? Or at least non-Google?

[saivann]

@luke-jr As stated, I suggested to run Google Analytics only for a week, and remove it afterwhile. This change is meant to be temporary, and the intent is only to evaluate what kind of dedicated server (hardware and software) is needed. Server-side statistics will be possible once we actually have a working dedicated server.

[gmaxwell]

Ah, I certainly didn't test SSL. Scaling SSL is a bit fun. :)

[luke-jr]

Well, I'd prefer a non-Google solution, but don't let me hold it up just for that.

[saivann]

I have quickly looked for a couple of non-Google services yesterday but I wasn't convinced they could handle enough traffic for free. However I remembered about the anonymizeIp method provided by Google which I have enabled. I'll open another pull request to remove Google Analytics, which should be merged on December 29th.